Last night I attended by web conference a meeting of the Internet Strategy Forum, led by group founder, Steve Gehlen.  Steve summarized highlights from the soon to be released update of the Corporate Internet Strategist Study.  About 10% of survey respondents represented nonprofit organizations.  Some major points:

1. Marketing is the department most often responsible for Internet strategy (60%)
2. More companies (19%) are now devoting a separate department to focus on Internet strategy
3. Web tools / services are most often selected through a collaboration between Marketing and Information Technology
4. Job titles for those who manage web and online projects are ‘all over the place’
5. For groups which handle web strategy, social media has become an important component

The main difference between this group and others that target online strategy for nonprofits is the exclusion of a fundraising/development role which, as I’ve said, is as important as that of Marketing and IT.   The full study will be available for download on the Internet Strategy Forum site by month end (information on the 2006 report is now available).   I’ve also asked Steve to filter this data for nonprofits, which I will also share here.

Especially noteworthy is conclusion #2 – the growing trend towards a separate department allows online strategy to function as a cross-department collaboration, where it can be most successful.  I will also discuss this issue at my webinar next week, Getting Started with ePhilanthropy.